the day to day life with our two boys

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We officially began our kindergarten year on August 3rd, so we’re going on week four even though schools in the area began their year yesterday. So far, it’s been going really well. J is loving and thriving in our curricula choices for the year, and he looks forward to our 45 minutes of school each day. We actually only do Monday through Thursday with only our main curriculum on Friday. Yet, he asks each weekend to “do school,” as well. Even though it can be tricky with the distracting 3 year old and demanding newborn, I’m really enjoying that special time with him. It does us both a lot of good to have that intentional time.

Our plan for each day begins with our main curriculum, Build Your Library Kindergarten, and then we go through a rotation of the remaining curricula until the 45 minutes is up. We have a chart posted, so he’s able to follow and knows what to expect and what is coming up. He currently always anxiously awaits doing math and a kiwi crate 🙂

Yesterday, I broke the news to J that it was his last lesson in the Primer level of Math-U-See. I thought he’d be excited, but he got really upset about it! I think that speaks to the program quite a bit. He’s really enjoyed working through each lesson and looks forward to completing all of the worksheets. I was a little concerned that it would be too “workbook” for him, but he loves it. He doesn’t use the blocks as much as I thought he would, but he knows that they’re there when he needs them. A lot of the skills in Primer were just review for him, but he had no issue picking up the new skills. We now have a child who can tell time, and he’s so proud of himself! I’ve been really impressed by how the program introduces everything and feel very confident that we’ll be sticking with Math-U-See for awhile.

I showed J the Alpha books, and he wasn’t upset about being done with Primer anymore! He especially loved that the’re green! We won’t be starting it for a few weeks, but it’s ready to go! The Primer books are all put away waiting for the day G is ready for them, and I know he’s going to love it, as well.

For the past few weeks (okay, months), J has been asking/begging to start his school stuff again. We just haven’t been able to swing it with how I’ve been feeling, so we kept just pushing it aside. It always made me feel super terrible (even more than the pregnancy was already doing to me). It’s incredibly difficult to see your five year old son get dejected and sad when you tell him that you just don’t have the capability to do a reading lesson. I love that he loves doing his “school work” and don’t want to discourage that!

So, today, after about three months off (talk about flexibility in homeschooling!), I finally got down his “Run, Bug, Run!” reading book from AAR and sat with him to read his next two stories. One green star on his chart later, and he’s beaming at me! He asked if that meant we could start his reading and math lessons again, and I reluctantly agreed. It’s not that I don’t want to do them with him. I do! The attention and direction that he gets while we do his lessons directly impacts his behavior in an extremely positive way, and we’ve been for sure needing that lately! I’m just nervous that I’m going to get in over my head with committing. I am, however, going to try. If nothing else, even doing stuff with him for a few minutes each day will likely carry him over to the next day if I’m not feeling super great. Therefore, I’m going to give it my best effort, and we’ll see what happens!

For the past few years, I’ve always enjoyed the “Day in the Life” series on Simple Homeschool. It’s so interesting for me to read about how other homeschool families work on a normal day-to-day basis. I’m excited to be able to share my own this year! I’ll be honest, though, that our current typical is very non-typical, at least to a degree. There’s one child in this family who is demanding a severe amount of my time and energy (hint: it’s not the five or two year old), and it’s brought a major change to how we’re living currently.

For anyone new, we tend to fall into the category of “classical unschooling.” We have some curriculum, but it’s not the basis of our homeschooling. Life takes the lead, and we’ll always choose an activity or adventure over feeling tied down to getting what’s expected of the day. To refer back to life while pregnant, nothing has been done in the curriculum arena since November. I just don’t have the energy for it. I’m sure it’ll pick back up soon, and it always just fits into our day where it can. We tend to be out in either the morning or the afternoon (although there are the days where we’re out both or none at all), and we just do it when we’re home.

So, here is our Monday morning of February 2nd, 2015:

5:40am- Jony leaves for the airport. It’s a travelling husband kind of a week.

7:30am (ish)- the boys wake up and proceed to begin playing. I’m not in a stage of life where I wake up before them, and I honestly am not sure that I ever will be! This is their best playing time. I usually wake up when I hear them, but I stay in bed. They almost never fight during this time, and it rarely includes technology. I don’t dare disturb them, and I don’t mind staying in bed!

8:45am- A bit later than normal, but they come to get me and tell me they’re ready for breakfast. Someday, I hope to be better at breakfast (or morning in general) again, but for now it’s frozen waffles and cereal for breakfast. They certainly don’t mind. After we all eat, everyone takes their plates and bowls to the sink.

9:45am- I use this time to get dressed and pack our bag for the day. It’s a short trip out today, so that mainly consists of ensuring I have enough diapers and wipes. J gets dressed on his own and then joins G to play some more. MagnaTiles and trains are the toys of choice. When I’m finished, I help get G dressed and send him off on his way again.

11am- It’s a late morning adventure, but we all load up and head towards the Galleria area. Our big excitement for the day is meeting someone from our local trading Facebook group to buy a Rock n’ Play for the baby.

11:45am- Pick up Rock n’ Play. The boys are always excited for something baby related to occur, so we have a big baby discussion as we drive to lunch

12pm- lunch at Chick Fil A! I feel super gross, but the boys put away their food while I sip on lemonade. I’m still working on managing my blood sugar while pregnant. Of course, every trip to Chick Fil A includes some play time. J, per usual, befriends the little girl already in there, and they all go on a plane trip and car ride to Massachusetts. When she leaves, they just decide to race each other.

1:30pm- head for home! Mommy needs to rest.

2-6pm- While I just lay around and check the computer (and finally manage to eat my nuggets), the boys spend the afternoon playing. You may notice that my children have zero issues with playing independently or with each other. Sometimes, I feel like I can too easily neglect them, but it’s a good stage for this point in my life. Today, they choose to color, return to the trains and MagnaTiles, put some puzzles together, and play on their tablet for a bit. J reads some Thomas books to G for a good half hour in the hallway, which I love.

6pm- The sounds of hunger are beginning to emerge to the tune of raised voices and crying, so I start dinner. We usually aim to eat at this time, but I had a “pregnancy afternoon.”

6:45pm- The smell of sausage became too overpowering, so I wasn’t able to actually eat what I made. Both boys had two helpings, though. They’ve been eating so much lately!

7:30pm- Dinner is over! The boys clear their plates and head to the Legos. I manage to eat a bagel with cream cheese.

8pm- Bedtime! After PJs, bathroom/diaper change and teeth brushing, we all settle into J’s bed for him to read us a BOB book. Then, it’s each to their own bed while I read a book, one chosen from each. They settle in while I clean up from dinner and spray some poop diapers from the day. I typically then read from their encyclopedia for a bit, but they both were too tired tonight so I just relaxed in there while they went to sleep.

9:30pm- I’m catching up on the computer and finally managing to eat some real dinner. It’s been a pretty low key day and my pregnancy has shown it’s face more than a few times during it, but it was a good day overall. The rest of the week looks pretty hectic- Little Gym for both boys (on different days, of course), La Leche League, MOPS, dinner with family and a sleepover (for the boys) at their Grammy/Grandpa’s house all on the horizon!

It’s definitely more of a day in our life than a “homeschool” day in our life, but that’s us! I’m excited to see how different it all looks in a year, but we’ll just keep cruising along for now.

We’re expecting! A third tiny Hammond will be joining our family mid to late July! Both boys are ridiculously excited, especially J. While always excited about actually being pregnant, I have not so much enjoyed the actual act of being pregnant. For some reason, this pregnancy has hit me much harder than the previous two did. Almost immediately, I started feeling nauseous and remained so, with varying degrees, until very recently. Even now, at 14 weeks, I still have to monitor my activity level and force myself to eat. My appetite is slowly coming back around, luckily, and I don’t get close to blacking out near as often as I was! So, I’m on the right track!

In a nutshell, for the past 8-9 weeks, I’ve just been surviving. I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have Jony here as much as he was due to holidays (which, I advise, is a time that should be avoided when in early pregnancy) or without the help of our parents, especially my mom, who was able to come live with us for a few weeks while I couldn’t manage life.

I’m starting to get back up on my feet. In fact, this week I have managed to feed, bathe and entertain the boys for the first time by myself in weeks while Jony is back to travelling. We even left the house for a few activities!

After J’s birthday, all school activities totally dropped off. We had already planned on taking off December, but we still haven’t gotten around to picking it up again. Soon. It’s allowed us to explore the concept of unschooling a little more and are realizing that we definitely fall into that scope at least to a small degree. We’re not ditching any of the curriculum we’ve chosen, but we’re for sure straddling the line of an eclectic homeschooler/unschooler family. More thoughts to come on that, I’m sure.

This was a short month for us since J spent a week away, but it’s still amazing to see how much we covered in such a short amount of time! We’re really happy about our current groove, and J is more than excited to do some school each day.

All About Reading (Level 1)

This month brought along some new letters: i, v, f, z, o, l and w. It’s really opened up a whole new world of words, and it’s clear it’s starting to spread out to actual life and not just when doing his reading. J’s favorite part (besides the stickers at the end of each lesson) is that he’s reading the short stories now. He got through four this month. I love having him read to me, and he is SO proud of himself. The confidence this program builds is my favorite part.

Math-U-See (Primer)

We finally saw the switch from super easy review to learning new concepts! J has been loving math the entire time (it’s his favorite subject, by far), but I was ready to start seeing him challenged. There was still some triangle identifying and practicing writing numerals, but he was introduced to place values: units, tens and hundreds. I was nervous that the jump would be too much for him, but I keep underestimating my boy when it comes to the math world. It made perfect sense to him, and he took to it immediately. He didn’t need any help in identifying triple digit numbers, but he’s coming from a place of understanding when he says every single number he sees anywhere now!

Nancy Larson (Kindergarten)

We finished Unit A: Exploring the Human Body and Five Senses by really getting into those senses. We are now about halfway through Unit B: Investigating Healthy Habits. He’s been learning about nutrition and exercise. We’ve been covering all of the main food groups and learning how to identify them. He’s really enjoyed working in his booklet, Investigating Ways to Keep My Body Healthy, since he feels like he’s writing his own book. There’s been no complaint about the snacks from the boys, either!

Artistic Pursuits (The Way They See It)

I’m still concerned that this level was a bit below where J is actually at, but not so much that I’m worrying about it. Both J and G are really enjoying the activities that go along with it, and that’s what art is all about! This month, we talked about using different colors and explored watercolor which brought a beautiful underwater scene to our house from J. We also had some fun with the visual motivator lesson by doing it at the farm! It called for us to go to a body of water and draw the experience. Since they have a lake there, it worked out perfectly! J really brought in some detail, while G just enjoyed coloring on the dock. We’re a bit behind schedule in art due to the crazy schedule that October brought, but we’ll catch back up. Eventually 🙂

If I thought September was crazy, October is going to the next level! We love October in this house, though, and it’ll probably fly by just as quickly as the summer did! We’re looking forward to lots of outdoor time, festivals, farms of all variety, pumpkins, Zoo Boo, and all things Halloween. There should be plenty to keep me and the boys entertained as daddy heads off to Florida each week.

Along with some fun fall/Halloween crafts, we’re adding in our study on the US States! We’ve decided to go in statehood order, so Delaware is up first. I found a great list of books for each state, along with using some of the printables from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom. J will test his art skills in an attempt to recreate the state flag, and we’ll read about each state in a neat little book we got from my parents.

October also brings around our first “off” week, in which J will be heading up to East Texas to spend the week at my parents’ farm. He’s been looking forward to it for months, but I admit I’m nervous about being all alone with G the entire week! I’m afraid he’ll spend the entire time asking for his brother, but we’ll enjoy some fun activities that he wouldn’t be able to do with him there (like the Tot Spot at the Children’s Museum!).

We’ve spent the weekend prepping for the month with all the activities and travelling, decorated the house, and even hit up the pumpkin patch. We’re ready for October!

After reading about the idea on a Homeschool Facebook page that I follow, I really wanted to hold an “Open House” of our own. We knew that everyone had some questions about what exactly we were doing, so we thought it was a great opportunity to invite the family over and be able to look at all J’s work and see the curriculum in person. We had both sets of parents and the local aunts attend, along with an uncle and a cousin. J was so excited to have everyone over and show off all that he’s been working on. He read a few words for everyone, showed off his green room and played with his cousin. We took advantage of having company and really got the green room back in order again, putting away all the loose toys and coloring books and pages that get everywhere so quickly.

We set up all the curricula and the work he’s already completed on our kitchen counter so it was easy to pick up and look at. We got a lot of great questions, and it seemed like everyone left with a bit more confidence in our alternative schooling route. I imagine this will be a yearly tradition at the Hammond Academy for Boys!

What a fun week! Even though we were just as busy as we were last week, it seemed to flow so much better. J zipped through his lessons this week with minimal issue (except for his first sight word- the; it’s killing him!). He even got his fluency sheet for AAR Lesson 4 done already today! I’m so impressed by how quickly AAR is building his confidence in reading. He’s so excited to start his first stories next week. He really enjoyed his science lessons this week, especially regarding his sense of smell and a sliced banana! Since last week was so nuts, we missed his art lesson last week. The boys were both excited to pick that up again today and were super thrilled at being able to do a messy project.

As far as outings go, we started out our week at Homeschool Day at the Houston Children’s Museum! We didn’t do anything special there that we wouldn’t have been able to do any other day, but it wasn’t nearly as crowded and J was amazed at how many homeschoolers there are in our city. He thought it was so cool to see older kids, and he kept remarking to me that everyone there “except the adults” were homeschooled just like he is.

On Tuesday, we had our Open House for the family to come over and see our little “school.” J was so excited and proud to show off what he’s doing, and he always loves having family come over. My parents spent the night (also exciting for both boys) and took the boys and I to see the Sharks! exhibit at HMNS, which, obviously, J loved. The biologists/curators were amazing there, as always, and were answering our questions and letting the boys touch a fossilized megaladon shark tooth. They were even both given a shark tooth from the Cretacious time period, so J is super proud of his new cool shark teeth that lived with dinosaurs.

The rest of the week consisted of our normal activities- swim, Little Gym, MOPS, chiropractor and even a trip to IKEA. We have a low key weekend planned and then we’re off to another crazy week!

This was a crazy busy week, and I feel like I was running around constantly. Nap time is always a low key time, but the rest of the day? Exhausting. For all involved. Wednesday was Jony’s birthday, so that was the biggest excitement of the week. Swimming for J also kicked off again for the semester. It’s clear he was doing more free form swimming than “swim lesson” swimming over the last month, but he was getting back into it by the end of the lesson. As usual, he loved it. Both boys are still loving their respective classes at Little Gym, and J is handling hanging out in the lobby during G’s class way better than I could have anticipated. He takes his backpack of activities, and he’s perfectly content between that, the toys they have there, watching/cheering G on and having one-sided conversations with the employees trying to do their job. G missed out on both of J’s activities this week due to naps. One of the few benefits of Jony working from home! It was nice to have that solitary time and get to just enjoy watching my big boy have a blast in his classes.

As far as other activities for the week, we had playgroup on Tuesday, some friends over from LLL on Wednesday morning and spent an hour or so on Thursday pouring rice and beans into plastic bags for a local food pantry. It was our second time for this service activity, and I could tell that J got a little bit more out of it this time since he had something to build on. I’m sure we’ll be back; it’s such an easy way for young kids to provide a service for their community.

School for J took a bit longer this week than it has been, mainly since reading is starting to really pick up. Not everything is coming as easy to him, but he’s doing great! He refers to his school work as his reading games or math games, and he’ll come and ask me to start school on the days that I don’t initiate it quick enough for his liking. We’re currently working through his first fluency sheet in AAR Lesson 3, completed MUS Lesson 4 on rectangles (math is still very easy for him), and started working on parts of the body in science.

The biggest development of the week is the switch of career goals for J. He’s wanted to be a construction worker since he could talk, but he’s moving on. He now wants to be a “shark scientist” and discover why hammer head sharks have hammer heads. His set goals for himself to prepare for when he’s adult is to learn about the ocean, all about sharks and to keep taking swim lessons so he’ll be able to go deep into the ocean. He hopes to be able to swim with sharks by the time he’s a daddy.